The next DIAS seminar will feature a presentation by Dr. Martin Möllhoff (DIAS), who will present his latest work on volcano monitoring in the Galapagos Islands.

Abstract:

Mid April 2018 a team from DIAS Geophysics deployed 10 broadband seismometers at Sierra Negra volcano in the Galapagos Islands. The project is run in cooperation with the School of Geosciences at University of Edinburgh, the Instituto Geofisico at the Escuela Politecnica Nacional (IGEPN) in Quito, Ecuador and the Galapagos National Park. Recent ascent of magma to shallow levels in this basaltic volcano causes a monthly uplift of about 20cm, accompanied by hundreds of small earthquakes per day.

An eruption of Sierra Negra in the coming weeks or months is considered likely. The project seeks to improve our understanding of how earthquakes can trigger one another and to characterise the nature of the on-going unrest. This short presentation will focus on what motivated the project, how operational aspects of a rapid network deployment were tackled and what lessons have been learned so far.